- ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Two outpost offices of the National Weather Service in Alaska are finally ending what has been a bygone practice for most of the nation for almost two decades - using real human voices in radio forecast broadcasts. The Nome and Kodiak offices are switching to computerized voices that nationally go by the names of Tom, Donna and, in some parts of the country, Spanish-speaking Javier, a move first reported by Nome radio station KNOM. It's an idea first hatched in the mid-1990s as part of a move to modernize the weather service. Local weather forecasts are a big deal to many people in Alaska because the forecasts can be a matter of life and death. In Nome and Kodiak, weather reports are crucial for many because of the severe weather that can affect fishing vessels.